Brokers said sustained selling by funds amid a weakening trend on other Asian bourses in tandem with overnight losses in the US markets, following disappointing corporate results and soft economic data, mainly dampened the trading sentiment.

Besides, investors were cautious ahead of quarterly earnings from Reliance Industries, Wipro and other blue-chip companies to be announced later in the day, they said.

Stocks of IT services major Tata Consultancy Services fell by 3.28 per cent to Rs 2,274.20 despite posting better-than-expected growth of 50.3 per cent in consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended December 2013.

Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.69 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.38 per cent in early trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.39 per cent lower in yesterday’s trade.

Rupee up 14 paise against dollar in early trade

The rupee strengthened by 14 paise to 61.39 against the dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased selling of the US currency by exporters.

Forex dealers said dollar’s weakness against other currencies overseas on weak inflation figures and disappointing US corporate results supported the rupee but a lower opening in the domestic equity market capped the gains.

The rupee had gained 1 paise to close at 61.53 against the dollar in yesterday’s trade.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark index Sensex fell by 37.60 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 21,227.58 in early trade today.